Willem Hendrik BuiterCBE (born 26 September 1949) is an American-British economist.[1] He spent most of his career as an academic, teaching at various universities. More recently,[when?] he was the Chief Economist at Citigroup.[2][failed verification]
Buiter is a contributor to the Financial Times, where until December 2009 he wrote a blog entitled " Maverecon".[9] In April 2008, he wrote a paper about the situation of Icelandic banks for Landsbanki, together with his wife Anne Sibert.[10] In mid-July 2008, an updated version was presented to the government of Iceland.[11] The Icelandic interlocutors considered the paper to be too market-sensitive and it was agreed to be kept confidential.[11]
From June 2009 till August 2011, he was professor of Political Economy at the Centre for Economic Performance of the LSE. In January 2010, Buiter joined Citigroup as Chief Economist, replacing Lewis Alexander who vacated the position to work with the United States Treasury eight months prior. In an April 2009 blog post, Buiter had earlier described Citigroup as "a conglomeration of worst practice from across the financial spectrum."[12]
In 1973 Buiter was married to Jean Archer. The marriage was dissolved in 1997. They had two children, David Michael Alejandro, born on 22 February 1991 in Callao, Peru, and Elizabeth Lorca, born 6 August 1993 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Buiter, since 5 June 1998[1] is married to Anne Sibert, professor of economics at Birkbeck, University of London, who was also an External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Iceland from 2009 until 2012. Sibert, on account of her criticism on the banking system and European finances for the Centre for Economic Policy Research,[16] has been called "a commentator who cannot easily be ignored."[1][17]